Dublin gunman shot cyclist during rush hour before he shot himself

Police examiner the scene of the shooting in Glasnevin, DublinBreakingnews.ie

A Dublin father was gunned down during rush-hour traffic in Dublin on Monday morning.

Christopher O'Neill, 52, was shot at close range in the stomach by a man armed with a shotgun as he cycled down Glasnevin Avenue in North Dublin.

The victim has been described as a career criminal who was known to police in the Ballymun area.

The shooting took place at 8:15 am, shortly before hundreds of local children began their first day back at school.

As the gunman fled the scene he shot himself and wounding his leg. He was later found by police responding to the incident.

The two men were brought to separate hospitals by paramedics, where they are being treated for their gunshot injuries.

A 45-year-old local man told the Evening Herald he was bringing his young daughter to child-care at around 8:15am when he heard the gunshots.

"It was two shots. They sounded louder than bangers, so I knew they must be gunshots," he said.

"I could see when I got to where the shooting happened a man was lying in the front garden of a house and there were men standing around him blocking my view," said the man.

"There were bicycles lying on the ground and the man who was shot was regularly seen on his bicycle on the area, usually with one or two others on bikes," he said. "When the ambulance came he was carried out of the front garden on a stretcher.

"He wasn't making any sound," he said.

Dublin’s latest shootings come just two days after Dean Johnson, 21, was shot dead in Clondalkin.

Police examiner the scene of the shooting in Glasnevin, DublinBreakingnews.ie